


just promise me we'll be alright

by becauseimclever



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, almost as much as they love angst, cora and derek love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-20
Updated: 2013-06-20
Packaged: 2017-12-15 14:37:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/850688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/becauseimclever/pseuds/becauseimclever
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek tries to resume his life with his sister.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just promise me we'll be alright

**Author's Note:**

> title from ghosts that we knew by mumford & sons  
> just listen to it while reading this  
> seriously that song was made for the Hales

CoraCoraCora  
Derek keeps chanting the name over and over in his head trying to wrap his mid around this girl being here. Trying not to think about his baby sister wandering alone. Without a pack, without anyone. Basically trying not to think of her in his situation.  
He has her now though, safe in the loft after the bloodlust wore off. Boyd was with family, of course.  
Derek doesn't count on his return. 

He remembers Cora's face when he found her again. Blood on her face, under her nails, in her skin.  
It washed off of course, but he knew the guilt lay there, knew it buried down deep, and no amount of scrubbing could wash it off.  
He shouldn't forgive her. He should yell and scream and demand why she didn't call, why she didn't ask for help. He should discipline her, make her regret everything.  
He can’t, he would be a hypocrite.  
Because he told her about the fire. The truth for once.  
And his expectations (frustration, anger, resentment, cold rejection) had been slapped down when Cora blinked twice and then hugged him tight. 

They don't talk that night. Not about the ghosts around them, not about their family or the others. They sit and try to breathe easy again. If they wake up curled around each other on the couch, neither dares to let the other go. 

 

He takes her to the old house when he deems her ready. It took a while but she needed this and he did too. To be with someone else besides the ghosts.  
His throat closes up and his chest tightens and he would be worried about Cora seeing him like this but she’s in the same state.  
He loses track of time, but when he comes back to reality (cold hard reality. His imagination ran wild with the smells of his mother’s baking and the sound of his father’s easy laugh and his sisters’ tea parties) when he feels a warm hand slip into his. He looks up and feels something loosen when he sees the small smile on his sister’s face. One of relief and finality and he knows now he can walk out of the house without the weight of 11 ghosts on his shoulders. 

 

Nothing ever changes though because death follows.  
Erica's dead. He says this every morning when he wakes up to try and ease the pain. 

It doesn't work. 

He visited her grave today, brought her daisies. He places them next to a cheap plastic pen with the batman logo on it. He thinks of all the things he could say. The things he should say. None come out because none can bring her back.  
But he feels fingers slip by his own and he smiles, jostled out of memory of finding her body and onto the one of her real smile when she greeted them in the mornings before things when to shit. When she would bring breakfast from McDonald’s to the station and blast Ke$ha just to annoy Isaac.  
Cora tugs him back, back to the apartment, back to safety, back to hope. 

 

He knows he still has a long way, he'll never let go of the past and he'll never forgive himself even if everyone else does. He has days when he doesn't come out of his room because he can’t even breathe. Cora and Peter learned to leave him on these days, though Isaac still demands "cuddle sessions.”  
He'll die one day. Probably before he’s thirty in this town, but it will happen. He doesn't deserve to ask for anything, for any respect but he wants to have someone with him. He told Cora this on one of the pack days in the loft. Peter was making some odd tea and she and Derek were on the used couch while Scott, Stiles and Isaac played The Game of Life on the floor. But she had smiled wide and said, "I volunteer as tribute."  
He had clearly missed a joke somewhere when Stiles high fives her but his heart clenched at the sentiment.  
When the day was done, he looked at his sleeping pack, sans Peter because “not everyone likes puppy piles," and tried not to laugh. Scott and Stiles were kicking their feet in their sleep, making god awful mumbling noises, Isaac curled himself into such a small ball between them Derek was amazed the other two didn't disturb him. His sister had surprised him by latching onto Isaac at the beginning. While the gangly teen was sandwiched, he had a hand outstretched that was held loosely by Cora. He shook his head and looked out the window, letting himself think. 

He frowned when he felt a cold hand link with his own but mirrored Stiles’ tentative smile and held on tight.

**Author's Note:**

> disclaimers yay


End file.
